Beyhind Brand Beyoncé

Every now and then, you don’t really need a subject to cooperate for a profile in order to pull off a profile (Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah on Dave Chappelle last fall comes to mind). Here’s Out’s Aaron Hicklin on the people behind Brand Beyoncé:

If you want to get to know someone, it helps to get to know the people around them. In Beyoncé’s case, there was no alternative. The opportunity to write about her materialized with an unusual condition: There would be no face-to-face interview. The musician was in the midst of an intense international tour, dramatically overhauled to accommodate 10 songs from her new, eponymous album. And although I would get to fly to Glasgow to see her perform the revised set, I would have to settle for an email exchange for this story. But — and this was the silver lining — I would have unprecedented access to Parkwood Entertainment, the tight-knit, furiously devoted team at the heart of Brand Beyoncé. This was more than a concession — this was being invited into Bey’s inner sanctum.

[Out]